Pittsburgh Superintendent Mark Roosevelt has a plan for his principals—to transform them from building managers to instructional leaders, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. During the past two school years, Roosevelt told principals about their new role, started the Pittsburgh Leadership Academy to help them adjust, and created a “School Plan for Excellence” for each school in the district.

NAESP believes that it is incumbent upon school principals to continue their professional growth in order to improve instructional leadership and model lifelong learning. What do you think about Roosevelt's plan?

I absolutely agree with Superintendent Roosevelt's decision to have principals serve as instructional leaders rather than building managers. As an instructional leader, there is a higher level of expectation and accountability, as there should be in the role of a school principal. Any person with business or management experience can make a building run smoothly...however, it should be a major objective of the public school system to set an appropriate example of instruction through leadership.